Davin blog

Notre Dame tops Louisville for sixth straight win

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Ben Hansbrough scored 25 points and Carleton Scott had nine of his 16 points in overtime Wednesday night to lead No. 8 Notre Dame to an 89-79 win over No. 16 Louisville.

Tim Abromaitis added 23 points for the Fighting Irish (20-4, 9-3 Big East), who extended their overall win streak to six games and their home streak to 17.

This was the fifth overtime game in the last nine meetings between the two teams. Louisville beat the Irish at home last year in double-overtime.

Kyle Kuric scored a career-high 28 points and Terrence Jennings added 14 for Louisville (18-6, 7-4) before fouling out in overtime.

Preston Knowles, the Cardinals' leading scorer at 14.9 points a game, returned to the starting lineup after missing a home win over DePaul on Feb. 5. and finished with 13 points.

Notre Dame scored the first 14 points of overtime after Scott hit a 3-pointer to start the extra period. Scott added a three-point play to put the Irish up by eight with 3:12 left.

Scott then grabbed an offensive rebound and dunked the putback, and Ben Hansbrough drove the lane for a layup with 1:06 left to push the Irish lead to 14.

In the final minute of regulation, Knowles missed a 3-point attempt and Hansbrough knocked the rebound out of bounds with 25.6 seconds left. Louisville had a chance to win it, but Knowles missed again from long range to send the game to overtime.

Kuric vaulted over Scott Martin near the end of the first half and dunked with eight-tenths of a second to play. Martin was whistled for a foul, but Kuric picked up a technical on the play. Abromaitis hit both free throws and Kuric hit his as well to give the Cardinals a 44-40 halftime lead.

Jack Cooley provided a lift off the bench in the first half for the Irish with 10 points.